The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) has taken the initiative to translate the child safeguarding online courses developed by UEFA and Terre des hommes into Dutch. This allows them to promote the e-learnings in the Belgian Football clubs, elite football schools and national youth teams as part of the Belgian Child Safeguarding Programme.
Together with the regional federations (Voetbal Vlaanderen and ACFF) and the Pro League (professional clubs), the RBFA created a Belgian Child Safeguarding Programme for Football. Actions will be taken at two levels: inside the organisations and in the clubs. The emphasise will lay on installing Child Safeguarding Focal Points in every federation and the promotion of the role at club level, providing code of conducts, performing background checks, organisation of education, applying the reaction plan and communication.
“Child safeguarding should be high on the agenda of every football federation. Children should feel safe and happy when they play football. However, to guarantee this, you need to show clear efforts, both at federation and club level. Education is key and that’s why we took the initiative to translate the child safeguarding e-learning courses into Dutch,” said Hedeli Sassi, Child Safeguarding officer RBFA.
For the educational part, the RBFA wanted to have the UEFA online courses available in the official languages in Belgium: Dutch and French. The French version was already in place and thanks to the RBFA, the Dutch version is now launched as well.
Four interactive courses are available:
- Awareness raising on child safeguarding in football
- Child safeguarding for coaches
- Child safeguarding for staff
- Child safeguarding for child safeguarding focal points
The RBFA will ask all staff members of the national youth teams to complete the child safeguarding online courses for their roles. Furthermore, they will install a Child Safeguarding Officer in each national youth team who will need to follow the online course for child safeguarding focal points. The regional federations will also promote the e-learnings towards the amateur football clubs. In that way, it’s the goal of the RBFA and its partners to enhance knowledge about child safeguarding both at organisational and club level.
In addition to French and Dutch, the online courses are available in English, German and Russian, and soon the Romanian and Polish versions will be ready. If your football association is also interested in translating the e-learnings into your official languages, please contact childsafeguarding@uefa.ch.